I’m keeping notes for myself here and if it proves to be a worthwhile process I’ll post it for those who might want to make their own newsletter someday. I began by Googling “farm newsletter” then “beef farm newsletter” to get closer to the type of farm that we have. You wouldn’t believe how many awful newsletters are out there! No pictures, no dividers, often just full pages of text typed up like a letter. No visual appeal, no headlines that reach out and grab you. That is NOT what I want our newsletter to be. Ours is going to be fabulous.
Since I couldn’t find much for inspiration I decided instead to start with a list of what I want for contents:
- Order form/price list
- A place on the form for feedback
- Some pictures, not enough to be overwhelming
- Recipes, at least one
- Maybe a FAQs section
- Hay info
- New barn pics/info
- Meet _____ featuring another local small business
- Welcome to visit message
- Spread the word/referral incentive
- Help Wanted
Next, I contacted Thumb Graphics, the company that got our website going. Theron, the owner, suggested I go with 17″ x 11″ paper folded in half and printed on both sides. That way 2 big sheets could form an 8 page newsletter. He advised me to save the newsletter in .PDF format for him if possible.
I really wish I had Adobe PageMaker for designing but since I don’t I decided to use Microsoft Publisher instead. I selected one of their basic newsletter templates and added pages so I had 8 to work with. I was having trouble visualizing what would go on each page so I stapled 4 sheets of computer paper together to make a sample…
sounds like you are off to a great start! can’t wait to see the finished product. 🙂
It sounds great!!!
It sounds like you have a good newsletter unfolding! Definitely have pictures…and a little white space. Good luck!
Hey, did you make a local harvest page? We have one and it’s so easy, you should make one! (Plus it’s free, and well-known).
Sounds like it is going to be fantastic! That is my kind of thing to do…I love doing stuff like that! And I think yours IS going to be fabulous!! For sure! 🙂